Recently a track from Die Klute started playing on Spotify after an album that I was playing finished. Rarely do I enjoy such a selection, but I kinda liked it. So, I took a screen shot for later. The track was “It’s All in Vain”.

This morning I was getting ready for a walk. I usually do a ridiculously long bike ride on Saturday morning, but had experienced a rough week and was. Just. Not. In. The. Mood. So, long walk and some music. It remembered that intriguing track, so downloaded the album, fired up my walking ear buds and set off.

This lead to two regrets. The first, that I had not curled up and listened to this album through better headphones. These second comes later…

This album ripped from the outset. It was certainly industrial metal, but leant more towards the electro/ dance side. This often is a BAD thing, because the result sounds like a smoke alarm having angry sex with a microwave. This was not like that – powerful in riffs, vocals that were coarse for the most part and upbeat in tempo.

The themes were amazing: resilience; fortitude; a bloke who laments his partner is more in love with a TV series than her life and those in it; the state of music “mother-sucking rock and roll”; and finding peace “when I die, let me rot”.

“It’s All In Vain” was certainly brilliant, but “If I Die”, “Out of Control” and “Infectious” stood shoulder to shoulder with it. I held my breath at the start of each track, waiting for the dud or a ballad. It never came…

It reminded my of Rob Zombie in its use of samples and Deathstars with its use of the lower, growling vocals and themes about death – though not taken to that extreme. The music sounded more polished than it should be…

When I got home and looked them up. It’s a fucking supergroup made of Fear Factory’s Dino Cazares, Die Krupps’ Jürgen Engler and Leæther Strip’s Claus Larsen!

In any case, as a first listen, this album hooked me with its robust sound, exquisite engineering and appropriately predictable structure.

Don’t expect it to be metal, take it as an amazing example of its genre. How much did I enjoy it? I hopped on their page and ordered a copy of the limited edition splatter vinyl…

Wait for it…

10/10

Oh, and the second regret? As I walked, I often fist pumped, swaggered and danced, to the mirth of fellow walkers. I didn’t look at the runners. They NEVER look like they’re enjoying themselves.

-Greg Noble.